Sunday, September 21, 2008

How Do You See the Church?

Recently a friend sent me the video below. Canon in D is a wonderful song that I really enjoy hearing with a string quartet. The rendition below however is by the Los Angeles Guitar Quartet. When you have 5 minutes listen and enjoy. Perhaps it would seem unusual to some but this performance immediately led me to reflect upon the church of Jesus Christ. I share my reflections below.



Most basically a church is a collection of Christ followers who live in covenant with God and one another, engaged in the mission of Christ of sharing Good News that reconciliation with God can be experienced. The LAGQ represent many of the qualities of the church when she is living true to her calling.

Each guitarist brings unique gifting and talent that is of great value alone but truly beautiful and captivating when in concert. The musicians take the beloved piece by Johann Pachelbel that has been played in similar fashion for 400 years and add their own creative touches. The blending of talent and innovation results in music that is delightfully recognizable yet surprising, stirring and even fun.

So the church can be with the eternal ways of God that get freshly expressed through ancient and contemporary human realities. When the church is truly the church her “music” invites and inspires. She is winsome, engaging, redemptive and healing.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

What a fantastic rendition! I was amazed when they added a "banjo" style verse in the middle.

It truly shows that, just as in the Christian life, the sum of the parts is greater than the whole.

Thanks for sharing that!